The Room
by Paralax
Summary: Asami was a tinkerer, just like her father. So, naturally, when she saw the abandoned room for the first time, her mind immediately went to work. Rated T for implied Korrasami, Lin/Asami friendship, and pinwheels.


The room was twenty meters square, with an old fireplace on one side and benches and tables on the other. There were no windows. Asami speculated it used to be a workroom set up for the architects of the buildings on the island, where the finer pieces of houses were manufactured and the Air Temple relics were restored. The room sat at the end of a hallway that drilled down into the island, however, and was far away from any of the actual buildings. It was a mystery.

Asami reveled in mysteries. Within the day she had brought several boxes full of tools and equipment from her father's personal workshop. Even though Satomobiles had existed for more than a decade, her father still liked to tinker, and that spirit was passed onto his daughter. She knew how to race Satomobiles, but she understood how they worked and, from there, she became a promising engineer by the time Hiroshi was arrested. In a way, Asami felt like she was imitating her father, carrying on his spirit. That particular thought of him was one of the few that wasn't tainted with hatred or anger - she accepted that she was a creator, like her father. Her friends bent the elements themselves; Asami bent, too, but on a less raw level. She bent the heat of a furnace instead of pure fire, processed metal instead of bending it out of the earth, used water and air to shape the metal into whatever she desired.

She stood up to her full height, stretching her back and wiping sweat from her forehead. The little machine, based off of the pinwheels of her childhood, spun eternally away from the circulation provided by the open door and heat of the fireplace-turned-furnace. Next to it was a light bulb, propped up by some mechanical engineering books and connected to the pinwheel by a string of copper wire. The light bulb shone merrily, casting a yellowish glow across her pale face. Inside, magnets and copper danced away, a miniaturized version of technology that she knew powered the homes of Ba Sing Se. Pride filled her.

The entire contraption was transported to a desk she brought in, with paper and pencil and straightedge, and she began to sketch her next project.

Lin BeiFong could feel metal nearby. The idea of there being metal nearby wasn't unusual under normal circumstances - Republic City was built on the substance.

But she was on Air Temple Island, where there was next to no metal to speak of. She remembered Aang giving her her first tour of the place, back when it was new. He had said that he wanted the island to exist in a similar fashion to the places of his childhood, almost a century and a half ago. At the time, Lin found it a neat idea, but decades in the city portrayed the Island to her as rustic on a good day.

She slipped off her shoes, the vibrations on the island seeping through her soles unfiltered. There was metal, yes, but new metal.

Lin performed a trick her mother had taught her. It was possible to use the 'noise' of the earth to paint a picture of one's surroundings with closed eyes - her blind mother used it to see, and had perfected it to where she could read faces and the like. Lin didn't have nearly that amount of talent, but she was able to see the path that led down to a metal door. She followed her feet and found herself in front of a grey, solid door. She pushed it open.

Miss Sato was hunched over a desk, twisting metal bands into curved shapes and placing them on a stand in front of her. The room was dimly lit, save for a flickering furnace that looked to be made out of a fireplace, and with various metalworking and carpentry tools and books strewn about. Sato's thick hair was in a ponytail and she wore a tank-top and long black pants to combat the heat of the room.

Lin took one step into the room. Another. Sato remained focused, forming a track of sorts on the desk before her. Lin remembered how Sato's father was such an inventor, crafting items with a precision that eluded most benders. Lin doubted she could make tracks as fine as the ones the young woman before could.

With an air of finality, Sato laid down the final track, completing a oval circuit with dips and rises. She placed a rectangular box on the track, then picked up a metal cylinder with two wires sticking out of either end. Gingerly, she laid the cylinder on the rectangle, into a groove drilled into the center, and connected the wires to either side of the box. As soon as the second wire touched the box, it lurched forward with a start. Sato picked it up and fixed the second wire in place, grinning to herself. The wheels of the box began to turn in her hand, and she set it down on the tracks.

As the box began to circle the track, Lin understood. _It's a train_ she thought to herself. _How on earth did she do that?_

Sato looked up, noticing Lin's presence. She jumped and gave off a yelp. "C-Chief Bei Fong!" she exclaimed, her voice ringing in the enclosed room. "I didn't see you there. I-"

Lin held up a hand, "It's fine, Miss Sato. I just sort of wandered in here. This place is impressive."

Sato smiled. "You think?"

"I do. You really take after your father."

The smile on Sato's face fell. "Oh," said Lin _I forgot_ "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean-"

"It's fine," she said, her face hard, "I'm my father's daughter. I can't escape it."

*A change of topic, then* Lin's eyes fell to the car, moving slower that it was when Sato first set it down. "How does this work, Miss Sato?"

"You can call me Asami, Chief-"

"Lin, dear. I'm retired."

"Right." And Asami launched into an highly technical explanation about batteries and conductivity and several other topics that had been invented after Lin finished up her schooling. Lin watched Asami become more energized and more like the teenager she knew before all of this mess had started.

The agreement was that the room was to remain a secret between them. Asami would continue to work, and Lin would help out by metalbending when applicable and, after a time, became Asami's apprentice. She said it was to help gain an edge on Equalist technology, but that was only part of the motivation. The other part was the excitement of learning something new. And, after a while, they became friends of sorts. The generational gap was a little awkward at times, but Asami was mature enough and Lin understanding enough that they were able to work through it all. The room became theirs - Asami added some lights so she could see the finer parts of her more and more complex machines, and Lin used her connections to acquire better tools. Lin watched as her spirits rose as the weeks passed.

So when she punched the half-finished Satomobile engine in anger, Lin was surprised. "What's wrong?" she asked. She wasn't able to perceive emotions in the ground like her mother, but she didn't need her earthbending to see that something was wrong.

"Mako," she said, looking down at the wrench and bolts in her hands. "And Korra."

And Lin understood.

"Asami," she said, "Do you like Mako?"

The bluntness of the question took an extra second for Asami to process. "Yes. But do you know-"

Lin rolled her eyes. "I've spent decades interrogating people. That Mako is easier to read than a large-print book. He may be with you, but his heart is being pulled away by the Avatar."

Silence. "Do you want some advice?"

Asami nodded. "Don't waste your time."

"What?"

"What I'm trying to say is: If he's not returning what you're giving to him, then you're wasting your time. You're trying to bend platinum, or smelt wood."

"So you want me to just drop him? I don't think I can-"

Lin's inner police-officer started to manifest. "I'm not telling you to *do* anything. I'm saying that wasting your time is, well, a dumb thing to do. You're a very smart young woman, Asami. Don't waste your time."

The younger woman didn't respond, only sat in silence, nodded, then began tightening the bolts on the engine block with a new vigor. "Thank you," she said as they were leaving an hour later.

Lin nodded. _Mistakes are made so that the future may learn from them._

There were two people in the room. Lin could feel them. Someone else had discovered it. She felt sad at it, and a little angry at the person who discovered it. She chided her self. Why was she acting like a child?

Because the room had grown to mean something to her. It was a place to forget about everything for a couple hours and watch the genius daughter of a genius make things out of nothing. It was a place to indirectly learn about the city she had spent her youth protecting. Asami was her friend, and it was *their* room. And now it wasn't.

She made her way to the faded path that led her to the room. The door was ajar, and Lin could hear two voices coming from within, both female. She was a couple meters from the room when she heard loud, almost animalistic noises coming from within. What was-

Lin cautiously peeked inside, careful not to make her presence known. The Avatar and Asami were both in the room, the former nude from the waist up and the latter fully clothed.. Asami had pushed Korra against the western wall and was running her hands up and down her body. Korra had a look of pure hunger and desire, while Asami was focused, intent. Lin watched as Asami's hands rested on the Avatar's waist.

The metalbender turned and started walking away as fast as she could without being herself. She made her way to the coast, where she stuck her feet into the water to mute their vibrations, her face beet-red and full of confusion.

She waited about an hour before she headed back. When she walked in, the door was still open, and the air inside reeked of musk and perfume. "Oh hey," Asami said, "You're a bit early."

"I had some business to take care of with Tenzin that ended early." Her voice was as neutral as she could make it. Asami's hair was slightly disheveled, and it just looked so _obvious_. Still, Lin held her tongue.

It was only as Asami was putting the finishing touches on the engine that Lin felt she could hold her tongue no longer. "Korra was in here," she said. "I'm sorry, but I walked in while you two were-" she trailed off.

Asami's face turned bright red, and her eyes widened. "Oh," she let out, small and embarrassed. "You- You weren't supposed to see that."

"Obviously."

Silence. Asami continued to buff the sides of one of the pistons. "I'm not saying what you did was wrong," said Lin, "What you do on your own time is your own business. It's just... it's the Avatar. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't she at the center of a particularly nasty love triangle, as well as one of the most important people in this war?"

Asami sighed. "Korra's been stressed out to no end. Tarrlok and Amon's assault on her a few days ago didn't do much to help her. So, one night, we were talking, and she asked for my help. She knew what she needed, but she didn't know who to... get it from."

"So this is..."

"Completely for her. I have no emotional investment in it. I'm the stress reliever. We both see it that way. I'm comfortable with who I am enough that it isn't too weird for me, and she's been so sheltered she doesn't quite understand how wrong some people perceive it to be. The idea was so weird to her I had to spend a good ten minutes explaining it to her." She laughed weakly at that.

"I'm sorry," Asami said, looking up at the metalbender. "You must be completely weirded out by this."

"A little," Lin said, "When I was growing up you two would have been frowned upon. But Republic City taught me to be tolerant. It's fine, really. I'm just worried, I guess."

"Worried?"

"That you are all safe and not putting each other in jeopardy. What if Korra starts getting emotionally attached? That plus the tension between you, her, and Mako is a recipe for disaster, and you three plus the Bolin kid need to stay sharp. Amon's going to hit soon."

"I know, it's just- Korra's a really good friend. One of the best I've had in a long time. We both sort of grew up alone, but surrounded by people. I want her to know that I'll be there for her, that I support her."

Lin caught on "You don't want to lose her as a friend."

"...I know it's weird, but I don't know, I don't see it that way. I see it as friends helping friends out."

Lin sighed. "I understand, Asami. I understand what it's like to be alone. Trust me, you don't get as far as I did in this city without making some sacrifices. Sacrifices I sometimes regret." She put her hand on Asami's. "Just, be careful. I don't want any of you to get hurt. You're a good bunch of kids. As soon as you see that you're wandering too deep, if you'll pardon the pun, then I want you to-" Lin tried to think of a better way to put it.

"To pull out?" Asami offered.

And they both laughed, their voices echoing against the stone and wooden and metal walls.


End file.
